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CHAPTER VIII EPIC AND TRAGEDY.
CHAPTER VIII I HOMER: THE ILIAD AND ODYSSEY Better proof of Homer's existence could hardly be desired than the perfect and mathematical symmetry between the two works which he has left, and the strict internal symmetry of each of them, indication of as tyrannical a plan as ever a poet imposed upon himself, and with which no two authors were ever known to bind each other. This being demonstrated, it appears to me idle to go on refuting the many attempted refutations of the existence of Homer, refutations which contradict one another to an extent truly comical. Wolf, father of the Zollian school, held that the supposed primitive poems never existed; that the works were constituted slowly by the patching together of many pieces of different origins and different epochs. His intellectual descendants, Hermann, Fauriel, Kayser, etc., held that original poems did exist, but in slight and meager form, and that they were little by little lengthened by additions. Guigniaut, in turn, attempted to show that they were simply achieved by the Homerides, after a plan bequeathed them by their ancestor! Croiset, on the contrary, held that the principal parts of the poems were the author's, but that the plan was of a more recent epoch, as well as the additions and connecting parts necessary to this thesis. Koechly and Kirchoff share this opinion. But all three differ as to which are the original parts and which the additions. All these hypotheses rest, of course, upon other hypotheses: imbecility of Greek critics, barbarism of the period after the taking of Troy, non-existence of the latter (which however has since been discovered), etc. The ILIAD and the ODYSSEY contain each 24 books. The author has divided each into two parts inversely symmetrical; we call them the LESSER ILIAD (which goes from an indecisive situation under the walls of the city to the shore upon which the Greeks find themselves thrown back), and the GREATER ILIAD (which goes from this extreme point of their weakness to the final fall of Troy); the GREATER ODYSSEY (in which Ulysses wanders, far from Ithaca) and the LESSER ODYSSEY (in which he returns). Each of these halves comprises exactly 12 books. If this clear distribution of the epic material be the work of grammarians, then we must regret that we can discover nothing as ingenious in the anti-Homeric writings of ours. Each half-poem may now be divided into equal groups: ILIAD LESSER ILIAD (Books I-XII). The first of the two groups (I-VI) confines itself, very logically, to the EPHEMERAL ADVANTAGES OF THE GREEKS. The second (VII-XII) to THEIR INFERIORITY MORE AND MORE DISASTROUS; in the second shines Hector (who appeared only episodically in the first, which ends with the famous farewell to Andromache); since in his strength lies the weakness of the Achaians, it follows, in effect, that by his presence is personified the distress to which the anger of Achilles has abandoned them. And here Hector watches and fights without rest on the field of combat. GREATER ILIAD (Books XIII-XXIV). This, in the first part, consists of the DESPERATE STRIFE ON THE SHORE. Near the beginning of the second part, on the contrary, Achilles solemnly renounces his rancor, the cause of the three periods just ended, and this last quarter of the poem consequently narrates only HIS EXPLOITS (XIXXXIV) which are thus pendant to those of the Trojan heroes. Likewise are Books XIII-XVIII (DESPERATE STRIFE) pendant to I-VI (EPHEMERAL ADVANTAGES). Thus the four parts of this tragic symphony, far from exhibiting the confusion which nineteenth-century criticism has stupidly ascribed to them, are framed with faultless symmetry. Let us range the six books of each part in four parallel columns, according to the manner in which they thus correspond: LESSER ILIAD GREATER ILIAD I VII XIII XIX II VIII XIV XX III IX XV XXI IV X XVI XXII V XI XVII XXIII VI XII XVIII XXIV The first books of these columns (I, VII, XIII, XIX), recounting CONFLICTS IN WHICH FOUR HEROES, ALMOST EQUAL, ARE MATCHED TWO BY TWO, are filled with alarming discords, whose wailing reminds us of those which open the "Funeral March" of the musical Homer. Book I : The impiety of Agamemnon ; the pestilence. Then the injustice of the king of kings; the discord between the chiefs, and the departure of Achilles. Book VII : The two next most redoubtable adversaries engage in combat, Hector and Ajax; which will triumph? Night puts an end to the unsolved question. Sepulture of the dead, whose funeral pyres illumine the darkness. The terrible presages of the Gods Book XIII: Ajax and Hector dispute anew; they passionately insult one another. This time the struggle takes place among the ships. Idomeneus strikes in vain. Book XIX: Achilles returns and renounces his resentment; Agamemnon relinquishes Briseis; all the rude caprices of the first book are at an end. Achilles weeps bitterly over Patroclus. Shall we now take the second book of each of these half dozens? They will tell us, four times, of the solemn INTERVENTION OF THE GODS in the conflict: a thrilling pause follows the short footfalls of the opening, that their menace may be the better apprehended. Here (Book II) is the deceptive dream sent by Zeus, which is followed by preparations and by the assembling of the troops. The Goddesses, in Book VIII, are with difficulty kept within bounds by their master and king; the prayers of Hera have obtained a momentary success for the Greeks, but the Goddesses attempted disobedience quickly brings about their repulse. In Book XIV Hera naturally takes her revenge: she has lulled Zeus to sleep, and the anti-Zeus, Poseidon, springs to the aid of the Greeks. In Book XX all the Gods descend to the combat! The third books of these four groups show invariably the ACTION BROUGHT ON IN A NEW WAY, BUT ALWAYS IN VAIN. The duel of Memelaus and Paris, which might settle the quarrel of the two peoples, does not take place, Paris being miraculously carried away (Book III). The embassy to Achilles, another attempt at the decisive, also fails (IX). The Greeks, favored by the slumber of Zeus, lose all their advantages on his awakening; they are even driven back to their ships; already that of Protesilaus takes fire (XV). Achilles in person meets a conqueror in the river-god Xanthus; he, however, is stopped by the Gods, who find, in their turn, among their own race, adversaries impossible to overthrow (XXI). All solutions here appear impossible. The fourth book of each series (IV, X, XVI, XXII) is that of GREAT CATASTROPHES: breaking off of the truce; Pandaros treacherously wounding Menelaus (IV); the deaths of Dolon and especially of Rhesus assassinated in his tent, repay one treachery with another (X). And if to underline once more these antitheses Patroclus is killed in Book XVI, Hector, succumbing in the corresponding book (XXII) pays, according to the same law of composition, for his death. The fifth books, on the contrary, are devoted to the glory of the heroes: the EXPLOITS OF DlOMEDES give title to Book V, as the EXPLOITS OF AGAMEMNON to Book XI and those of MENELAUS to XVII. What plainer signs of symmetry could be desired? If Book XXIII is that of the FUNERAL GAMES IN HONOR OF PATROCLUS, does not this mighty apotheosis offer an even more striking MISE EN SCENE than his exploits? Finally, the sixth book of each series terminates the threnody, at first mournful, then religious, then violent and sterile as the billows, then lamenting an illustrious warrior, then singing the praise of another, with a final sigh of elegies and tears. Ready to rejoin the fatal Paris, Hector clasps his Andromache at the Scaean gate (Book VI); exhausted, the Greeks yield their wall condemned by the Gods (XII); Thetis, in tears, has the arms forged in which her son will perish (XVIII). Priam brings back the body of his son amid the wailing of the Trojans (XXIV) . ODYSSEY Such long connected threads, such broad surfaces could not be carried from a work of war through a pleasanter and more varied narrative. The means of changing and varying which occurred to the author were found in a different division of the same number of books; the framework remaining identical (24 = 2X12), he changed the internal distribution. The division of each half of the poem was in this case ternary. It thus furnished the poetic creator a SINGLE creator, as I think we begin to see an aspect exactly COMPLEMENTARY to the first, which, as we have just seen, rested on a binary division. Homer here gained, at a stroke, smaller surfaces (groups of four books instead of six) to be more delicately sculptured, and at the same time an ENSEMBLE less bare and simple. GREAT ODYSSEY LESSER ODYSSEY I V IX XIII XVII XXI II VI X XIV XVIII XXII III VII XI XV XIX XXIII IV VIII XII XVI XX XXIV GREATER ODYSSEY (Books I-XII) : The first of the three groups (I-IV) shows ITHACA WITHOUT ULYSSES; the second (V-VIII) ULYSSES, UNKNOWN, AMONG THE PHEACIANS; the third (IX-XII) the NARRATIVES OF ULYSSES (HIS DISTANT ADVENTURES). LESSER ODYSSEY (Books XIII-XXIV) : Here first is ULYSSES IN ITHACA (XIII-XVI); then ULYSSES, UNKNOWN, IN HIS OWN PALACE (XVIIXX); lastly, the EXPLOITS BY WHICH HE RECONQUERS HIS THRONE (XXI-XXIV). These two triads are perfectly balanced. ITHACA WITHOUT ULYSSES and ULYSSES IN ITHACA; ULYSSES, UNKNOWN, IN THE STRANGERS' PALACE and ULYSSES, UNKNOWN, IN HIS OWN PALACE; DISTANT ADVENTURES and ADVENTURES IN HIS OWN COUNTRY, like the two dyads of the Iliad: EPHEMERAL ADVANTAGES OF THE GREEKS and their DESPERATE STRUGGLE ON THE SHORE; VICTORIES OF HECTOR and TRIUMPH OF ACHILLES. Here, then, is the same esthetic, based on Number, which Pythagoras is later to define as "Analogy." Here, likewise, the first books of the groups present analogous situations: A HERO IN GREAT WEAKNESS WHO NEVERTHELESS ACQUITS HIMSELF WITH COURAGE: Telemachus alone among the suitors (I) ; Ulysses clinging to a wreck in the tempest (V); again when he and his escape from Polyphemus (IX); again, alone, when he awakes abandoned in Ithaca and does not recognize it (XIII); when he enters, a scorned beggar, his pillaged palace (XVII); when this beggar puts his hand to the great bow which the suitors cannot bend (XXI). And the second book of each series offers, in recompense, A MAN SUFFERING REVERSES, BUT AIDED BY A KIND INTERVENTION. After the gathering of the suitors, the assembling of the people; and, if they refuse Telemachus the vessel he ask , the w.ise Mentor promises him one (II). To Ulysses, destitute and naked, Nausicaa gives garments (VI). Against Circe, Hermes forearms him (X). In his distress he meets with the fidelity of the humble Eumaeus (XIV). Penelope, by her attitude, consoles him for the insults and attack of the beggar Iros, without knowing him (XVIII). Before the suitors, Athene, first in the form of a darting swallow, then with her shield, encourages and protects him (XXII). If the first and second books of each series balance one another, the third and fourth are not less symmetrical: the latter accentuates, at every stroke, the idea of the former. Here is Telemachus at Pylos (III), then at Sparta (IV). Here is Ulysses entering the palace of the Pheacians (VII), then feted by them (VIII). Here are the Dead evoked (XI), and the Monsters appear (XII). Here is the return of Telemachus (XV), then the discovery of his father, object of his search, in Ithaca (XVI). Here is the project of testing the suitors by means of the bow (XIX), then the prudent organizing of the massacre (XX). Here, finally, is Ulysses master of his home (XXIII) and of his kindgom (XXIV). A like method observed in the two works shows that they come from the same hand, if it were not sufficiently proved by both being apologies for vengeance, and by both tending to point the same moral; the one negatively, by blaming the INEVITABLE DISCORD OF PLURALITIES; the other positively, exalting THE CONSTANCY AND THE VICTORY OF THE INDIVIDUAL TYPE; the one chanting an emotion, the other a man! In each of these poems the truly extraordinary symmetry between the parts which compose it demonstrates that the hypotheses of interpolations and of lacunae of any importance must be rejected. I defy any one to cite a single work, as strictly planned and calculated in all details as are these, which COULD have been executed by several artists of different epochs, or even by two collaborators, however closely united. Whence, then, can have sprung the strange and profoundly anti-artistic conception of a plurality of authors for these compositions marked by so leonine a hand? The answer is simple: from the admirable independence which each member of these masterpieces retains. Far from losing its own individuality in the mass of narrative, a single canto a 24th part of a poem, a 48th part of the double work can be considered separately and alone, and can satisfy. A single Homer conceived his epic in this wise, and so executed it. And herein lies the secret of its eternal youth. II --LAW OF GENERATION BY WHICH TRAGEDY SPRINGS FROM EPIC The second of these poems contains, in advance, the technique of Tragedy. Take away the third part of the ODYSSEY (IX-XII: the Narratives of Ulysses) and we have before us the five visible portions of tragedy, which engendered our traditional five acts, a division which we find even among the Chinese. As for the Narratives of Ulysses, they form the invisible side, which is in all tragedy invisible for the very simple reason that it serves as a base ; the base upon which a cube rests is not apparent to the eye. It is to this part, formed of events anterior to the beginning of the action, that the exposition of every first act makes allusion. From it emanates the mystery which permeates the work. From it springs the agnition in which, finally, it becomes visible at the moment of the catastrophe. Thus, in the four dramas which in succession form the ILIAD, the second canto of each is the mystery and the explanation, which must be veiled and diffused in a scenic adaptation. All well-constructed epics rest upon multiples of 6: the ILIAD has 24 cantos, the ODYSSEY 24, TELEMAQUB 24, LES MARTYRS 24, the ^ENEID 12, the THEBAID 12, PARADISE LOST 12, REYNARD THE Fox 12, ARAUCANA 36, LE LUTRIN 6. Of what weight, in view of this, is the HENRIADE? Neither the LUSIAD (10 cantos) nor DER MESSIAS (20 cantos) have the qualities of the works just cited. If the PHARSALIA has but 10 cantos and the ARGONAUTICA but 8, it is because these two poems are incomplete. I find no valid exception but JERUSALEM DELIVERED (20 cantos), and we can hardly refrain from criticizing its narrowness of horizon, when we consider the oceanic immensity of the Crusades.* The Bible contains 72 books. And all the Idyls come back to 12 invariable themes. Ill THE THREE SYSTEMS OF POETRY There are three great systems of poetry: Parallelism, Quantitative poetry of long and short syllables, Our poetry of accent. These may be subdivided: the metrical poetry of the ancients, the tonic poetry of the Germans, Spanish assonance, rhyme, etc. They may be combined: thus liturgic poetry has synthesized all the systems. Parallelism (Chinese, Semitic) remains close to logic and rhetoric. Thence comes its privilege of "translatability" into all idioms. Parallelism is to poetry, in a manner, what ideography is to writing. It opposes whether by SYMMETRICAL comparison, by ANTITHESIS or by a more vague and subtile analogy which is called SYNTHETIC two propositions. Examples : 1st, of SYMMETRIC parallelism : "The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents : The kings of Sheba and of Seba shall offer gifts." (Psalm LXXII) 2nd, of ANTITHETIC parallelism: "Faithful are the wounds of a friend: Deceitful are the kisses of an enemy." (Prov. XXVII) 3rd, of SYNTHETIC parallelism: "The law of the Lord is perfect, Converting the soul : The testimony of the Lord is sure, Making wise the simple: The statutes of the Lord are right, Rejoicing the heart." (Psalm XIX) Now grammar teaches us that a proposition is reduced, in the last analysis, to three elements: subject, verb and predicate. This then makes, in a Parallel, 6 elements (2 subjects, 2 verbs, 2 predicates) arranged face to face in two trinities. The verb, central element of each trinity, expresses the idea of RAPPORT, like the horizontal bar in each of the two terms of an algebraic equation : 1st term: 2nd term: For his anger A C His kindness endures = endures for the twinkling B D for a lifetime, of an eye : Parallelism, we hasten to add, has like its survival among us, our proverbs recourse to assonance or rhyme in order to accentuate still further the connecting of two ideas hitherto separated or insufficiently compared. What is assonance and what is rhyme, upon which our versifications are based? "Quel negre fou Nous a forge ce bijou d'un sou" . . . ? (Verlaine: ART POETIQUE.) They are cousins and kindred of the pun. And what is the pun but a play on words? It is a language laughing at its own infirmities. We can imagine an ideal language in which, on the contrary, the words resemble each other exactly in the proportion in which the ideas they express resemble each other. May such a marvellous language have once existed, in accordance with the ideal of a primitive human superiority, and must ambiguity, double-meaning and puns be traced to Babel? According to this amusing hypothesis, assonance, alliteration and rhyme would historically precede, instead of following parallelism in reactionary fashion, and a Verhaeren, bringing us back to the latter, would be closing a vast cycle. In any case, whether we make use of the QUATRAIN of short lines constructed on two rhymes, complementary, since, in the classics, one is masculine and the other feminine, "Un vieux chne etait la: sa tige "Eut orn6 le seuil d'un palais. "'Le cur de Meudon?' lui dis-je; "L'arbre me dit: 'C'est Rabelais.' " (Hugo: CHANSON DBS RUES ET DES BOIS.) or whether, from reminiscence of the ancients, but in verse more labored and artificial than theirs, we concentrate on the DISTICH of four hemistichs, "Le crepuscule vint et je tournai la tete, "Mon ivresse 6tait morte avec la tache faite." (H. de Regnier: JEUX RUSTIQUES ET DIVINS.) we come back, after all, like the parallelists, to symmetric dualities. Our versifiers have long noted in each of these dualities an average of 6 points of sonority, or tonic accents, distributed in two groups of 3, between the two halves of the verse. Four of these accents, in the following example, are stronger, because they coincide with the final syllables, while the two others proceed simply from the individual rhythm of the verse; from the se1nse o2f the phrase. 3 456 Oui, je viens dans son temple adorer 1'Eternel ; 123 4 56 Je viens selon 1'usage antique et solennel, etc. Now, if these dualities the distich and the quatrain are the rudiment of our stanzas, the parallelist also outlines his in a quatrain. So, either in parallelism or in our own versification, we invariably arrive at the following scheme: (A / B=C / D) = (E / F=G / H) Sub., verb, pred. Sub., verb, pred. Sub., verb, pred. Sub., verb, pred. of the of the of the of the 1st proposition 2nd proposition 1st proposition 2nd proposition of the of the 1st parallel 2nd parallel 1st 2nd 3rd 1st 2nd 3rd 1st 2nd 3rd 1st 2nd 3rd points of accent points of accent points of accent points of accent of 1st hemistich of 2nd hemistich of 1st hemistich of 2nd hemistich in the in the 1st distich 2nd distich or or 1st line 2nd line 3rd line 4th line of quatrain. of quatrain. "But," it may be objected, "y ur groups of 3 accents represent, in reality, each 3 pairs and not 3 unities. In each one, beside the point of accent on which you fix our attention, beside the THESIS of the Greeks, there is the weaker part, or ARSIS. This, with us, is next the long syllables in the spondee, or the BREVES in the dactyl and the anapest. In German verse, beside the tonic syllables are other syllables. Again, in some French poetry, beside the syllables most accented, and others of equal strength, are the syllables sacrificed by our method of scanning. And, in uneven rhythms, in which best survives among us the Aryan prosody, is it not the pause in expectation of one of these syllables (this time not merely diminished but suppressed) which gives that unforeseen effect, musical and pathetic, that sense of being "in the air" so beloved by our Verlaine? In reality we arrive, as the ancients did before us, at a total of a dozen demi-metres, alternative aspirations and respirations, by turns strong and weak." Yes. And so it is analogically that each of the Homeric poems is divided into twelve doublecantos, the ^NEID into twelve cantos, our own poetry into twelve fixed forms: six with refrain (RONDEAUX, simple and double, CLOSE, BALLADE, CHANT ROYAL and TRIOLET) and six with combinations of rhymes (LAI, VIRELAI, SONNET, PANTOUM, VILLANELLE and SEXTINE), as the year is divided into twelve months! since it is, in short, twelve lines or ARETES which bound the Cube formed, as I have shown, by the six faces from which our energy moves across the three dimensions of space.